Tokyo Gas, First Gen Corp in Philippines LNG JV

Japanese utility Tokyo Gas signed a joint development agreement with First Gen Corporation regarding the construction and operation of an LNG receiving terminal in the Philippines.

This is the first energy infrastructure development activity that Tokyo Gas participates in the Philippines, the company said in a statement.

The project aims to construct and operate the first LNG receiving terminal in the Philippines to introduce LNG as an alternative source of the indigenous gas field which is expected to decrease in production and to be depleted in the near future.

First Gen is a power generation company, unit of Lopez Group, one of the conglomerates in the Philippines, and is the largest natural gas consumer and
owns approximately 60 percent of gas-fired power plants in the nation.

The facility will be the country’s first import terminal, valued at $2 billion.

Earlier this year, country’s energy secretary Alfonso Cusi said the project construction should start before the end of the year, with the operations on the 5 mtpa project to begin in 2020-2021.

Liquefied natural gas delivered to the proposed facility would be used to fuel power plants with a total production capacity of 3,211 MW that are supplied from the Malampaya gas field currently.